The Barbed-Wire College: Reeducating German POWs in the United States during World War II

The following description of primary sources covers the framework of this study.
For additional sources please consult the notes.

Documentary Collections

This study of the German POW experience in the United States relies
heavily on the files of U.S. Army Provost Marshal General, Record Group
389, at the National Archives, Washington, D.C. These files contain a full
record of routine business and curriculum development of the Special
Projects Division (SPD) charged with the reeducation of German POWs
within the continental United States. Given the fact that most of the SPD's
faculty were not proficient in German, this collection includes English
language translations of most German material used in the reeducation
program.

The files of Edward Davison, at Yale University's Beinecke Library are
of special importance for understanding the internal politics among the
SPD staff, as well as the significance of the “Red Scare” that rocked the
program in 1945. Davison's papers include numerous unpublished
poems, some of them quite revealing of his personal politics.

The Walter Schoenstedt papers, at the special collections library, University
of California, Davis, provide a comprehensive documentary record
of the ideological inclinations of this important team member of the
SPD. Among his many duties, Schoenstedt was responsible for the content
of the POW newspaper, Der Ruf, as well as the selection of POW
collaborators for the Idea Factory.

Stephen Farrand was a legal advisor in the office of the Provost Marshal
General. His files at the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, include
the exchange of letters between the War and State Departments
regarding the establishment of the SPD, personnel evaluations of the SPD
staff written by State Department officials, censors' reports based on the
mail received and sent by POWs, as well as a large collection of local
camp newspapers.

The Office of the Historian of the Army provided me with a full record
of the SPD monographs which were written by the American faculty toward
the final stages of the program. These historical accounts include
staff evaluations of the various schools projects. All monographs are accompanied
by appendixes containing important original documents used
at various stages of the program.

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: The Barbed-Wire College: Reeducating German POWs in the United States during World War II.
Contributors: Ron Robin - Author.
Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Place of publication: Princeton, NJ.
Publication year: 1995.
Page number: 209.

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